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Cricket

India defeat New Zealand in 2nd T20I to level series 1-1

In the second T20, India defeated New Zealand by six wickets to tie the three-match series.
When New Zealand chose to bat, they lost wickets at regular intervals, finishing with a total of 99 for eight. Arshdeep Singh took two wickets for India, allowing only seven runs in two overs. Suryakumar Yadav remained unbeaten on 26 as India reached 101 for four in 19.5 overs while chasing 100.

After New Zealand dominated the first T20I by 21 runs on Friday, India captain Hardik Pandya remarked that the surface at the JSCA International Stadium in Ranchi “took us by surprise”. As India’s batting disintegrated in the light in Ranchi, the Kiwis seized a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Despite Washington Sundar’s maiden fifty in the format, India were limited to 155 for nine in 20 overs while chasing a goal of 177. However, Hardik said that his side let up some additional runs, making things difficult for the hitters.

After being caught in New Zealand’s spin trap in the first T20I, India returned the favour in Lucknow. Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, and Deepak Hooda have all hit boundaries to leave New Zealand at 48/4 after 10 overs. New Zealand were finally reduced to a score of 99/8, but the Kiwis ensured that India would not have an easy chase. They punished the hosts for every minor blunder they made while dashing between the wickets, and it was only Suryakumar Yadav’s four off the fifth delivery of the 20th over that gave India the win.

Indian Captain Hardik Pandya Said: “I always believed we will finish the game. It went quite deep, but that is how it is. These kind of games, it is important to not panic. Rather than taking risks, we rotated the strike. having said that, this is a shocker of a pitch. We need to make sure we have better pitches. Even 120 would have been a winning total here. We kept to our plans, we made sure they will not rotate the strike, and the wickets kept falling. Dew didn’t play much of a role because if you see they were able to spin the ball more than us. It was a shocker of a wicket. The ball was flying for even the fast bowlers.”

New Zealand Captain Mitchell Santner explained: “It was a great game of cricket. We bowled well, got really close, another 10-15 runs would have helped. With the bounce out there, it looked quite challenging. When you are batting, you are not too sure what a good score. We were looking at 140-160 when 120 would have been a good score.”

Suryakumar Yadav is the Player of the Match and stated: “A different version of SKY today. Adapting to the situation was very important. After losing Washy, I had to make sure I batted till the end. It was my mistake, I didn’t see where the ball went. Of course it was a challenging wicket, but you have to be able to adapt. We just needed one hit in the end, and it was very important to calm ourselves down. Before I got the winning runs, Hardik came up to me and told me you will hit the winning runs this ball. That gave me a lot of confidence.”

Match Scores:
New Zealand: 99 for 8 in 20 overs (Mitchell Santner 19; Arshdeep Singh 2/7).
India: 101 for 4 in 19.5 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 26 not out; Michael Bracewell 1/13).

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